Holders for oilcans



Oct. 10, 1961 w. HOFGESANG 3,003,736

HOLDERS FOR OILCANS Filed June 10, 1959 Fig. 4. INVENTOR. F lg. 3 William llofgesang 5 ZTORNE'Y United States Patent 3,003,736 HOLDERS FOR OILCANS William Hofgesang, Avenel, NJ, assignor to The Singer Manufacturing. Company, Elizabeth, N.J., a corporation of New Jersey Filed June 10, 1959, Ser. No. 819,445 1 Claim. (Cl. 248-229) This invention relates to holders for oilcans, and more particularly to a holder which is capable of gripping and supporting any one of a plurality of difierent kinds and sizes of oilcans.

Many difierent types, kinds, and sizes of oilcans are available on the market today and thus there is no way of knowing what type of oilcan will be used when a piece of equipment, for example, a sewing machine, is shipped from the factory in which it was manufactured. Because o-f this, it is desirable that the oilcan holder supplied with the equipment be capable of supporting any one of several difierent kinds and sizes of oilcans, and, therefore, one of the primary objects of the present invention is to provide a holder for oilcans which is capabale of gripping and supporting any one of a number of different types, kinds and sizes of oilcans.

Another object of the invention is to provide an oilcan holder having two gripping devices arranged in such a manner that both gripping devices can, under certain circumstances cooperate to support a single oilcan.

A still further object of the invention is to provide an oilcan holder having a plurality of oilcan gripping de vices.

With the above and other objects in view, as will hereinafter appear, the invention comprises the devices, combinations and arrangemnets of parts hereinafter set forth and illustrated in the accompanying drawings of a preferred embodiment of the invention, from which the several features of the invention and the advantages attained thereby will be readily understood by those skilled in the art.

In the accompanying drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an oilcan holder embodying the present invention,

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the oilcan holder showing the said holder supported from a leg member of a table, the leg member being shown in cross section, and the holder being shown as supporting an elliptical oilcan,

FIG. 3 is an elevational view of the oilcan holder supporting a second type of oilcan,

FIG. 4 is a horizontal view of the oilcan holder shown supporting a third type of oilcan, and

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a modified form of the invention.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention illustrated in the drawing, there is shown an oilcan holder 16 having a base member 17. One end of the base member 17 is provided with a C-shapcd prong 18, whereas, the other end of the base member 17 is provided with an S-shaped prong 19. The base member 17 and the two prongs 18 and '19 are fabricated from a piece of comparatively thin strap spring steel, and the prongs 18 and 19 are constructed in such a manner as to grip opposite sides of a flattened leg member 21, the opposite sides of the leg member being rounded as indicated by the numeral 22.

Secured to the front face 23 of the base member 17 are two separate, outwardly extending oilcan gripping devices, indicated generally by the numerals 30 and 40.

The upper oilcan gripping device 30 is formed with a long reach 31, secured to an upper portion of the front face 23 of the base member 17 by spot welding or any other suitable means. At each end of the reach 31, there is formed outwardly extending oilcan gripping arms, these arms being indicated by numerals 32 and 33. Each ice arm, 32 and 33 is formed from a first short section 34, a second curved section 36, and a third divergent free end section 37.

The lower oilcan gripping device is formed with a comparatively short reach 41, secured to a lower portion of the front face 23 of the base member 17 by spot welding or any other suitable means. At each end of the reach 41, there is formed comparatively long outwardly extending oilcan gripping arms, these arms being indicated by numerals 42 and 43. Each arm 42 and 43 is formed from a first comparatively long section 44, a second comparatively short curved section 46, and a third divergent end section 47.

Reference to FIG. 2 shows that the short sections 34-34 of the upper gripping device 30 are substantially parallel and that the curved sections 36-36 are of opposite hand and are positioned in such a manner as to substantially define a large circle. It will also be noted that the comparatively long sections 44-44 of the lower oilcan gripping device 4% are outwardly convergent, and that the curved sections 46-46 are opposite hand and thereby substantially define a small circle. Also, the end sections 37-37 as well as the end sections 47-47 are outwardly divergent, thereby providing open-mouthed entrances to the large and small circles defined by the sections 36-36 and 46-46 of the gripping devices 30 and 4i).

All parts of the upper and lower gripping devices 30 and 40 are symmetrical with respect to a central vertical plane 49 (FIG. 1). Because of this, the short reach 41 positions all parts of the arms 42-43 of the lower gripping device 40 closer to the plane 49 than the long reach 31 positions the parts of the arms 32-33 of the upper gripping device 30.

The oilcan holder is used in the following manner.

When it becomes desirable to attach the oilcan holder 16 to a leg member of -a table, as for example, the leg member 21 of a sewing machine table (not shown), the C-sha-ped prong 18 is placed over one rounded edge 22 of the leg member 21 and the S-shaped prong 19 is placed against the other rounded edge 22 of the same leg member 21. Then the base member 17 is pressed against the leg member 21 until the oilcan holder 16 grips the leg member 21 in the manner shown in FIG. 2. If an eliptical oilcan, for example the eliptical oilcan indicated by dotted lines 51 in FIG. 2, is to be supported by the oilcan holder 16, the base of the eliptical can 51 is caused to rest on the upper edges of the arms 42-43 of the lower oilcan gripping device 40 and the body portion of the eliptical oilcan 51 is forced against the end sections 37-37 and then between the curved sections 36-36. If a large oilcan, for example the oilcan shown by dotted lines 53 in FIG. 3, is to be supported, the neck portion 54 of the oilcan 53 is pressed against the divergent end sections 47-47 and forced between the curved sections 46-46 of the lower oilcan gripping device 40. In the event that a small circular oilcan, for example the oilcan shown by dotted lines 55 in FIG. 4 is to be supported, the base 56 of the oilcan 55 is caused to rest on the upper edges of the arms 42-43 and the circular portion of the small round oilcan is pressed against the divergent end sections 37-37 and finally forced between the curved sections 36-36 of the upper oilcan gripping device 39. When it becomes desirable to remove an oilcan from the gripping device, it is simply necessary to grasp the oilcan and pull it away from the resilient gripping of the outwardly extending arms of the gripping device. The complete oilcan holder can be removed from the leg member 21, by simply gripping the protruding end of the S-shaped prong 19 and springing the base member 17 sufiiciently to allow the complete holder to become disengaged from the leg member 21.

3 The oilcan holder 116 shown in FIG. 5 is a duplicate of the previously described oilcan holder 16, except that the end of the sections 3434 of the arms of the upper large oilcan gripping device 30 and the ends of the sections 4444 of the arms of the lower oilcan gripping device 40 are formed integral with the base member 117 instead of being formed at the ends of the separate reaches. Also the base member 117 shown in FIG. 5 has two pairs of gripping prongs 118119 and 118' and 119' instead of having a single pair of prongs. Also, all of the gripping prongs 113, 118, 119, and 119' are S-shaped. This makes it possible to remove the oilcan gripping holder 116 from a leg member by gripping either the prongs 118--118' or the prongs 119119'.

Having thus set forth the nature of the invention, what I claim herein is:

A unitary oilcan gripping device adapted to be mounted on a leg of a sewing machine table, said oilcan gripping device comprising a base member; a rearwardly extending C-shaped prong formed on one end of said base member; a rearwardly extending S-shaped prong formed on the other end of said base member, said two prongs cooperating to hold said base member to a leg of the sewing machine table, and said S-shaped prong providing a handle means for easy removal of said base member from said leg; 2. pair of closely spaced outwardly extending gripping arms secured to a front lower portion of said base member and eachrof, said outwardly extending arms having a first outwardly extending section, a second curved section secured to the outer end of said first section and a third divergent section secured to the outer end of said second section; and a pair ofwidely spaced outwardly extending gripping arms secured to a front upper portion of said base member, each of said last named arms having a first outwardly extending section, a second curved section secured to said first section, and a third divergent section secured to'the outer end of said second section said pair of closely spaced outwardly extending gripping arms being positioned entirely below the said pair of widely spaced outwardly extending gripping arms thereby making it possible for said closely spaced outwardly extending gripping arms to grip the neck of an oilcan of such size'that the largest diameter thereof is larger than can be gripped'by the widely spaced outwardly extending gripping arms.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,289,631 Brock Dec. 31, 1918 1,398,519 Hosch Nov. 29, 1931 2,074,475 Jesser Mar. 23, 1937 2,191,782 Valane Feb. 27, 1940 2,472,921 Quimper June 14, 1949 

